This is the fifth in a series of blogs, about ancient soil amendments used in the garden. Each blog will discuss a common and specific type of soil amendment used in the garden, along with documentation for its use, as well as occasionally discussing why a particular soil amendment was chosen, or its relation to modern gardening practices. The original blogs, along with other gardening related blogs, can be found here.

A cover crop is exactly that – a crop which covers a field. Another
term, green manure, is sometimes used when referring to cover crops,
because the idea with a cover crop is that they will be turned back into
the soil rather than being harvested. Living mulches must be made up of
perennial plants, where as in general, cover crops are annuals.

Lupines are discussed at length as a cover crop. Here are two examples from Geoponika: “If
the land is pervaded by roots you can sow lupines therein, cut them
when they are in flower and plough it in so that the cut parts are
turned under, and leave it after applying a thin layer of manure to it.” (GE 3-10.8). “Lupine
has to be sown in exhausted soil, not needing manure, because it serves
as fertilizer: in effect, it fertilizes whatever devitalized soil and
makes it productive again.” (GE 2-3.9.6) Cato says of cover crops: “Crops which fertilize land: Lupines, beans, and vetch.”

These
excerpts suggest that our ancient gardening ancestors knew without
science what we now know – that lupines fix atmospheric nitrogen and use their taproots to reach down into lower layers of soil.

Though
clover is a particularly popular cover crop, it is not the only one.
The use of winter cover crops such as oats, barley and winter rye as a
way to provide biomass and reduce soil erosion is frequently used in
modern farming.

Legumes (like peas) and some brassicas (like
radishes) are also common cover crops. Other cover crops noted by
medieval authors include fava beans, oats, and hemp and later during the
14th century weeds became a cover crop (Zadocks, 2013).

This is the sixth in a series of blogs, shared with permission, about weeds in the garden. Each blog will discuss a common and specific weed found in Maine, its history, uses, what story it tells about the soil it grows in, and how to get rid of it. The original blogs, along with other gardening related blogs, can be found here.

Clover is another self-spreading perennial, and though some hate it –
I would say if you have clover in your garden, leave it. It’d have to
be an exceptional reason to remove it or want it gone. Clover pulls
nitrogen from the atmosphere and shares it with nearby plants and soil –
thus it will do a great job at constantly fertilizing your tomatoes. In
lawns, clover remains green because it is exceptionally drought
tolerant, and makes a better choice for turf than grass. Plus local
pollinators love it, as do both bees and bee-keepers.

What does it mean?

A great amount of it may indicate low phosphorus, low nitrogen,
calcium, high magnesium. One of its primary benefits is that it helps
restore low levels of nitrogen. To get rid of it try aerating the soil
and fertilizing with nitrogen and gypsum/calcium lime. Alternately,
plant additional nitrogen fixing annuals such as legumes which will help
balance out the missing nitrogen in the soil.

If you are alright with leaving it in your garden, plant
nitrogen-loving plants such as corn or tomatoes near it. The clover will
complement the annuals and help reduce the number of times you need to
fertilize during the growing season.

Want to learn more?

If you would like to learn more about weeds, why they grow, and what that means about your garden, consider the following texts:

This is the fourth in a series of blogs, about ancient soil amendments used in the garden. Each blog will discuss a common and specific type of soil amendment used in the garden, along with documentation for its use, as well as occasionally discussing why a particular soil amendment was chosen, or its relation to modern gardening practices. The original blogs, along with other gardening related blogs, can be found here.

The use of food waste as a soil amendment is hardly ever specifically referred to in medieval and pre-medieval gardening texts. This might seem unusual – if you were to do a web search on what to do with your food waste right now, many of the first suggestions revolve around putting it into a compost or vermiculture bin. However, despite the lack of extensive specific references, it is probable this is what the medieval farmer did as well ( in addition of course, using it in a number of other ways).

First – it is safe to say there was probably very less food waste in
the way we think of it now. The Forme of Cury specifically states to
peel, or scrape, fruit or vegetables – but it is doubtful that such
peelings went straight to the compost. There are medieval recipes that
intentionally make use of modern waste items, such as entrails, and one
of the easiest ways to make a broth heartier is to boil down left-over
bits of vegetables (onion skins, celery tops and carrot ends) with
bones.

Second, sometimes food waste was used to feed animals, much as it is
now. Pigs and chickens are fairly non-discriminating with human food
waste, so why would you simply throw old food out if you could use it to
help feed your future food. Indeed, although pigs are cited in
Geoponika as primarily eating acorns, and great forests are planted just
for this purpose, later medieval farmers fed them food-waste.

Finally, we come to using food waste for compost or manure. In Geoponika,
Florentinus shares that “some people dig a deep pit and cart all manure
to it, the better with the worse, and rot it: into this goes … food
waste” (p87). Havlicek, Pokorna and Zalesak (2017) talk about the creation of square pits which were used within cities as
waste disposal sites much like the ones suggested by Florentinus. This
advice, along with advice of Roman authors such as Varro and Columella
would have been accessible to the medieval man. And though I am unaware
of an explicit statement to use food waste in gardening during the
medieval period, Richard Jones shares how it again becomes a stated practice during the post-medieval period.

Despite the lack of explicit statements however, it has long been
assumed that the relatively few numbers of middens (Astill, G. Fields pp
63-85), (and how others are surprisingly small and seem to be poorly placed,
suggest that most food waste was likely reused in some fashion.
Additionally, the amount of pottery and bone found spread around fields
and backyards suggests it was intentionally spread there (Pottery and Social Life in Medieval
England, B. Jervis, 2014) – probably mixed with food waste – in an
attempt to improve soils. Thus – it is safe to say, as a medieval
gardener, should you want to turn your food waste into compost, you
would not be out of the ordinary.

This is the fifth in a series of blogs, shared with permission, about weeds in the garden. Each blog will discuss a common and specific weed found in Maine, its history, uses, what story it tells about the soil it grows in, and how to get rid of it. The original blogs, along with other gardening related blogs, can be found here.

This perennial gets a terrible rap – but it has some vastly
overlooked selling points. It is a very early flowering plant and can
provide bees and pollinators with desperately needed early season food.
It’s deep roots (up to 3 feet deep) are beneficial for many surrounding
plants by bring nutrients up from deep underground. E. Pfeiffer says
earthworms like to follow the root channels created by dandelions as
well.

The plant is edible, and may be one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. It was widely praised for it’s medicinal properties throughout the medieval period.
They are analgesic, so if you want to try it start with making an
infused oil to rub onto sore muscles. Also, the flowers are touted for
their liver-tonifying properties.

Try the leaves for salad or in soup, flowers in alcohol and even the
roots. During the 14th century, dandelion leaves were regularly
harvested for use in salads or as an addative to pottage.
Use of dandelions as a wine base dates quite far back as well. If you
change your mind and decide to keep your dandelions, check out Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition and Craft of Live-Culture Foods as a source for some wine and beer recipes.

What does it mean?

Your soil may have low overall fertility, very low calcium, high
chlorine and very high potassium. Additionally, your soil may be
compacted but have good drainage. You should add gypsum/calcium lime,
nitrogen and phosphorus. Avoid potassium and magnesium. Aerate the soil
and mulch to increase organic matter and improve overall fertility.
Another trick suggested by Pfeiffer is to plant a large number of beans
and peas to suppress the dandelions.

Want to learn more?

If you would like to learn more about weeds, why they grow, and what that means about your garden, consider the following texts:

This is the third in a series of blogs, about ancient soil amendments used in the garden. Each blog will discuss a common and specific type of soil amendment used in the garden, along with documentation for its use, as well as occasionally discussing why a particular soil amendment was chosen, or its relation to modern gardening practices. The original blogs, along with other gardening related blogs, can be found here.

When discussing chaff in relation to soil amendments, it is important to understand what is meant. Chaff is an old word – from Old English ceaf, and in every definition it refers to the removed dry husks or shells of grains through the process of threshing and winnowing.

There is a detailed explanation in the Geoponika of which
types of chaff are best to use in soil building from Varro, which
mentions bean, barley and wheat husks (p88, Geoponika, trans. A. Dalby)
used to help offset salty soil. This is interesting because Varro
included bean husk as a type of chaff, where as other Cato separates the
two.

Says Didymos in the same chapter (p89), chaff is okay for roots, but
harmful to all manner of fruit, shoots, leaves and green vegetables
(whose leaves it pierces). He warns to not place it upwind of farm
buildings or pleasure gardens as well for it can cause eye-loss.

Cato talks of making a compost which includes straw, bean stalks and husks
and “chaff” in Chapter 37, most likely meaning in this case,
specifically grain chaff.

Of course, to use chaff as a soil additive straight would likely have
been uncommon. Florentinus mentions ash from chaff in manure, but most
other mentions within the Geoponika of chaff use it as a bedding for
animals, feed for them, or storage substance (for a variety of foods
including grapes and onions). The 15th century play Mankind shares the following proverb: “corn servit bredibus, chaffe horsibus, straw firybusque,” reminding us that chaff was supposed to be used as horse-feed.

Among other uses, Hamerow, Hollevoet and Vince (2016) discussed the use of chaff in Anglo-Saxon England to temper pottery. In Frederic Weaver’s book of Somerset Wills from the 14th and 15th centuries there are three instances of chaff-stuffed beds. In Medieval Merchant Ventures: Collected Studies, EM Carus-Wilson mentions a chaff-stuffed pillow. This practice continued into the 19th century, when the steps to fill the beds were outlined, and such beds were considered superior to straight
straw. Finally chaff is even found in thatch and daub from medieval
buildings (p43, Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition).

Obviously chaff was used for so many other things, using it as a soil
additive would only have been preferable if it was necessary – for
instance, to help salty soil – or if the chaff was no longer useful for
any other thing.